Internet Explodes Over Origin's Invasion of Privacy

[meepop]

Forgive me if this somehow angers you, but where are Anon and LulzSec when we need them!? This isn't even about games, it's an invasion of privacy! And to those of you saying "Should've read the ToS/EULA": Most people don't read them because no one is supposed to pull this bullshit! And besides, could you honestly say you'd want to read through every single ToS/EULA without skipping for every game you bought? If you did, how's Blandy's Monotonous Adventure goin' for ya?

EDIT: Anyone who wants to try and take a crack at finding a legal loophole, here's the link to Origin's ToS: http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/. Good luck!

 

[The Funslinger]

How can anyone in their right mind ever defend and support Origin?

It's encouraged some self-improvement from Steam?

Of course, that means that I'm going to happily keep enjoying Steam, and that Origin can gather dust in the attic, but still. Silver lining, and all that.

 

[JoJo]

I had to get Origin when EA made when they were fixing BFBC2 for me so I swiftly uninstalled it when I heard about this. Can they still browse through all my files?

I think you're safe from now on, I'm uninstalling mine now too since I only accepted it in a update for Spore which I barely play now anyway and I don't think I need it to play that.

 

[Faladorian]

IF YOU DO NOT WANT EA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, TRANSMIT OR DISPLAY THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE APPLICATION.

This is the part that made me laugh. I think they should include:

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THESE RULES, DON'T INSTALL THIS. ALSO, IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE APPLICATION, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM BUYING ANY EA TITLE FROM NOW ON.

EA just sees the success of Steam and has a case of the jellies

 

[meepop]

I'm probably going to be flamed for this but, what exactly are they going to do that is so wrong? I don't quite get the uproar if I'm honest. They are gaining the ability to look at the stuff on your PC and distribute it etc, but what will come of it? I can't see them selling off all the user information to some band of internet hackers who are going to backtrace your Ip and cyber police and yada yada.
tl;dr, If I download origin, am I going to spontaneously combust?

No, you are not. And it's not that they are going to sell your personal info to hackers, it's that they CAN. Plus, those evil things like Anon, if they were to (somehow) hack into EA's database, could steal all that personal info. It'd be like Sony, except much, much, worse. I'm not saying that PC gamers are better, but chances are that alot more of them will have Origin installed than just on this website.

So we have millions of people, some maybe even CEO's of other companies (I dunno) who, like awhile back with that whole .gov porn email thing, could have their lives on the line because of EA's dickish ToS. Steam does something similar, but they do it to make your games better! Look at Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2! And the whole lay-out of Steam!

We also run into the issue of them "accidentally" letting your email address get taken by spam-bots, or noticing that you pirated another one of their games. (Note: 'You' could be anyone)

 

[sleekie]

EA does not give a shit about you. The financial aspect goes like this: if they will make more money from this data than they will lose because angry gamers on the internet stop buying their products, they'll do it. Therefore, they go ahead and do it.

The only way to stop them is to make their projected figures fail by inflating the number of angry gamers. EA don't care what you think about it, there are plenty more dumbasses who will put up with this.

 

[Weaver]

If memory serves me correct, when Valve wants to collect data, it usually asks the user if they wish to participate in an online survey. And after you answer the couple of questions, Steam will show what data is being sent to the servers.

I do not know if there is additional hidden data harvesting within Steam. Does anyone?

I read through the steam privacy policy and it's much more benign than Origin's; at least with my understanding of it. Steam collects 2 kinds of information "aggrigate data" which is entirely anonymous and "individual data" which they say is identifiable information about your steam usage but not identifiable information about you. For instance, if the database administrator looks at your info he won't be able to figure out who you are in real life. It may, however, store a list of what games you recently purchased and use this to populate it's list of "recommended titles" which appear at the bottom of the store. likewise with aggrigate data, it may determine that "70% of our users have firefox installed" but it wouldn't be able to tell which account has firefox installed.

That being said, Valve at least has some credibility IMO and if them storing information about you in any way bothers you, you can do the following:

Corrections, Updates and Removal of Information
If you are concerned about the accuracy of personal information maintained by Valve or would like your personal information removed from Valve's records, please contact us by emailing [email protected] for review, update, or removal of personal information.

 

[LorienvArden]

I finally got it!
After all those weeks of stupid decission after stupid decission - it finally dawned on me!

Those major publishers went to the same PR advisor as the company who owns Rebecca Black and are going for a full out "Even bad publicity is publicity" approach.

Its so much cheaper to get people to talk about something negative then to advertise benefitial changes - so they implement several features that get customers riled up and flaming about em - with the sole purpose of promoting their products.

It's all a grand plan... now let me search for my tinfoil hat while I roll on the floor laughing about the stupidity of it all.

 

[wiersmaster]

I don't get what all the fuzz is about :/
Steam/Valve does something that looks/sounds a lot like this. [http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey]
Even better, contrary to EA, they don't specify what information they can gather, [http://www.valvesoftware.com/privacy.html] effectively giving them a carte blanch.

AGAIN the internet jumps to conclusions, follows the loudest opinions in a vicious circle and can't get over the fact that if a company makes a few good game, that doesn't mean everything they do is good and great.

At this moment I'm more afraid of Valve/Steam than EA or Origin. Partially because they effectively have a monopoly, but also because everything they do gets hailed as the new messiah, while anyone else doing those same things is wailed down as the downfall of gaming and a display of the moral decay of companies. Both of those things are much more dangerous to both gaming and gamers than a new service collecting the same information and having similar restrictions and policies as their big rival.

 

[kasperbbs]

I dont really have anything to hide, unless they are going to announce to the world that i was watching porn on x day of x month. I just hope that it wont slow down my PC while poking around, other than that i do not care, i will keep that app offline when i'm not playing BF3 anyway, just like i do with Steam.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Fucking EA! Hard. Copies. Come on people! I don't want to be the guy who's telling everyone to "Go back to horses, motors are just a fad!" but seriously!

They still require Origin. My sister has Sims 3 retail and she had to install Origin to run it...
OT: This is shit, but its EA. Not surprising.

 

[Buccura]

This is why you won't be able to beat Steam, EA. Just drop Origin and bring your games back to Steam and we can all be happy.

 

[PatrickXD]

Snip Snip

Snippidy

I totally forgot about Anon and the like actually hacking it, a derp on my part.
Thanks for informing me of the ramifications of this, I can join the flamyness of hatred now

 

[Floppertje]

beep boop beep beep boop
*ring ring*
Hello, Anon?
got one that's right up your alley!




actually, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they decide that EA needs some time away from their websites to think about what they're doing.

 

[D_West]

I feel bad for DICE. They go out and work their asses off making a game, and their big brother EA has to screw it up.

 

[Robert Ewing]

I'll get battlefield 3. Because I want to play it. But i'm certain I will get a crack to rid me of this sheer Chinese government spec DRM.

Bad move guiz, get rid of it. Or tone it down a little.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Pyro, HELP!!! EA's sappin' my PC!

On a more serious note, I am considering getting this for PS3 for the sake of DICE. I don't see why they should pay for EA's mistake. It's not their fault EA wants to play Spy.

 

[Aggieknight]

Honestly guys, this is bad enough that we need to be contacting our Senators (not that it will do much). This ToS is outrageous to the point that it should finally bring visibility to the legality of EULAs.

And then not buy this game. Wow.

 

[kayisking]

I had to get Origin when EA made when they were fixing BFBC2 for me so I swiftly uninstalled it when I heard about this. Can they still browse through all my files?

Officialy, they still have the right to do so, but I doubt they are able to unless orgins is installed.